Meet the Medic

Meet the Medic is the penultimate short in the Meet the Team series, featuring the Medic. It was released on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011, the final day of the Über Update, alongside the new Meet the Medic (Taunt). The final seconds of the short announce that Team Fortress 2 would be free-to-play forever.

Meet the Medic
Video Info
Released:	June 23, 2011
Run time:	4:09

Speculation

In March 2011, user "Political Gamer" visited Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, and confirmed the production of Meet the Medic. . They took a photograph of a poster at the Valve HQ, depicting the Medic posing alongside several flying doves.

The comic Meet the Director, released alongside the Replay Update on May 5, 2011, featured a page which depicted the Administrator at her control panel, with a number of screenshots from Meet the Medic on the displays.

On June 8, 2011, a patch to Team Fortress 2 was released and included an update that placed several doves in various positions in Valve maps. The doves explode upon contact but do not cause players damage. On June 17, 2011, an additional patch was released which added a secondary dove model with animations. Later the same day, the page layout of the TF2 Official Blog was updated to feature three doves perched upon the title banner, which was covered by bird droppings. Each dove linked to three separate hidden images depicting a rundown hospital, an empty hospital waiting room, and a doctor's office.

Part of the rundown hospital seen in the first hidden image can be seen in the background of the Medic's page on the official site, fully modeled.

On June 20, 2011, Meet the Medic was confirmed by TF2 Official Blog, and its release was announced to coincide with the Über Update, to be released on June 23. The doves that were perched on the site banner of the TF2 Official Blog were removed as part of the website redesign.

"Meet the Medic" Video Transcript

Transcript

The word "Medic" below refers to the protagonist, a RED Medic. [Fade from black to a seemingly peaceful rocky hillside] [Explosion from behind the hillside, RED Scout and wheelchair-bound RED Demoman rush over the hill. Tense music begins]. Scout: "Move cyclops, move!" [Cut to Scout and Demoman fleeing from a barrage of rockets.] Scout: "Come on, come on, almost - augh!" [Scout gets thrown sideways by a rocket; Demoman keeps going] [Cut to Scout lying on the ground, he attempts to get to his knees but collapses.] Scout: "Eerrrrgh! Argh." [A trio of rockets arc down towards Scout, accompanied by a whistling noise] [Scout turns toward the rockets] Scout: "Whoah! Who the f-" [Cut to a long shot of the explosion, Scout is flung yelling and flailing towards the viewer] Scout: "-uuuuu-" [Scout smashes face-first into a pane of glass in the foreground, breaking it and startling a dove.] Scout: "Medic..." ["Meet the Medic" card appears.] [Cut to inside the building. As the Scout slides off the window, the camera tilts down and turns right] Heavy: "oh-hoh-ho no nooo!" [Heavy laughs loudly while the medic explains simultaneously:] Medic: "Wait, wait, wait, it gets better." [Camera continues to turn and tilt, revealing the Medic, casually chatting with an opened-up and conscious RED Heavy, whilst holding Heavy's heart in his hand. A prototype Medi Gun mounted to an overhead rig is firing its beam into the Heavy] Medic: "When ze patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and ze doctor was never heard from again!" [Laughs madly] [Heavy laughs again, banging his palm on a tray of surgical tools next to him] Medic: "Anyvay, zat's how I lost my medical license, heh." [Heavy suddenly looks very concerned] [A dove pops up from inside Heavy's gut, surprising both the doctor and his patient] Medic: "Archimedes! No!" [Shoos the dove away] "It's filthy in zere! Eugh." [Heavy looks at Medic in mild surprise. Medic does not notice] Medic: "Birds." [Medic chuckles] [Cut to a mechanical heart device on a tray. The word "Über" can be seen on a small charge meter] [Medic grabs the "Über" device] Medic: "Now, most hearts couldn't withstand zis voltage, [Medic plugs the device into Heavy's heart and brings it into the Medi Gun's beam] but I'm fairly certain your heart..." [Heavy's heart explodes] [Cut to a trio of doves, Archimedes gets knocked away by a piece of the Heavy's heart] [Cut back to Medic, with Heavy in the background] Heavy: "What was noise?" [Medic quickly recovers from his surprise, casually removing the remains of Heavy's heart from the "Über" device] Medic: "Ze sound of progress, my friend." [Cut to Medic opening a refrigerator containing several hearts, a Sandvich, and a few beers. One exceptionally large heart is labelled "Mega Baboon"] Medic: "Ah... perfect..." [Medic grabs the baboon heart, revealing the decapitated head of a BLU Spy in the back of the fridge, somehow sustained by a battery] Spy Head: "Kill me." Medic: "Later." [Cut to Medic standing by the Heavy, baboon heart and Über device in each hand] Medic: "Where was I? Ah, zere we go." [Jams device into heart] [Cuts to Medic holding the cyborg heart in front of the medi beam] Medic: "Come on, come on..." [Heart starts beating, Medic starts laughing madly as the heart starts flashing unevenly.] [Heart glows red; Heavy laughs nervously] [Cuts to the Über meter on the device going to full] [Cuts to Medic, who has stopped laughing and is leaning his head away, as if expecting the heart to explode] [Cuts to doves for a brief moment, a blood-covered Archimedes back on his perch] [Heart stabilizes and stops glowing, its texture changes to a Über Texture.] Medic: "Oh, zat looks good." [Medic drops the heart into Heavy's open chest] Medic: "Very nice zere." [Heavy looks at the heart] Heavy: "Should I be awake for dis?" Medic "Ah heh. Vell, no, heh." [Medic adjusts his glasses] "But as long as you are, could you hold your rib cage open a bit?" [Heavy moves his hand as if to adjust his rib cage as Medic is pushing the heart inside] "I can't... seem..." [Cuts to Heavy's face as he yells out in pain as a crack is heard] [Cuts to Heavy showing Medic a snapped off rib. Both look at it tentatively] Medic: "Oh, don't be such a baby..." [Medic takes the rib from Heavy] Medic: "...ribs grow back!" [Medic tosses the rib aside and turns to Archimedes sitting on top of the medigun] Medic (whispering to the bird): "No zey don't." [Cuts to Archimedes, covered in blood, who cocks his head and flies away] [Medic swings the Medi Gun over to the open Heavy and raises the power] [The medigun completely heals the Heavy, as if by magic, even fixing his clothes] Heavy (impressed): (Deep inhale) "What happens now?" [Medic helps Heavy up] Medic: "Now? (chuckles). Let's go practice medicine..." [Cuts to Medic putting on his gloves, coat, and prototype Medi Gun (the eventual Quick-Fix) while marching music plays] [Cuts to a door bearing the red cross opening to reveal the Medic and his doves along with angelic music] [Heavy runs past Medic with Sasha ready] [Cuts to show a battlefield outside Medic's office with an Engineer and Sniper hiding behind cover, the injured Scout on the ground, and the wheelchair bound RED Demoman wheeling frantically towards them] Demoman: "Medic!" [Demoman gets blown off his wheelchair by several rockets, landing face-first on the ground front of Medic] [Medic pushes his glasses up his nose and flips a switch on the Quick-Fix] [Music intensifies as a healing beam is fired at the Demoman, healing him completely. Demoman nods toward the Medic, picks up his Sticky Launcher and heads back towards the battlefield.] [Medic then fires the Quick-Fix at the RED Scout, fixing him up also] [The Scout leaps to his feet] Scout: "Yeah!" [The Scout grabs his Bat from out of the air as he gets up and runs off] Scout: "Woohoohoo!" [Heavy hides behind a red truck as the Scout runs past] [Scout runs up to a BLU Soldier and whacks him with his bat] Scout: "Oh yeah!" [Cuts to show a massive horde of BLU Soldiers coming over the crest of the hill] Heavy: "Doctor!" [Cuts to Heavy] Heavy: "Are you sure dis will work?!" [Cuts to Medic] Medic: "Ha ha ha, I have no idea!" [Medic flips a switch, and a panel lights up as a meter labeled "Voltmeter" reaches full. The words "Übercharge Ready" can be seen on the panel. Medic's backpack starts humming with power] [Medic fires the Quick-Fix at the Heavy, who pops out from his cover] Heavy: "EYAAAAAAAAAH!" [Cuts to show Heavy's baboon heart beating rapidly, then cuts back to show Heavy glowing with Übercharge power] Heavy: "HA HA!" [Medic and the Übercharged Heavy advance under rocket fire, and Heavy starts laughing about his invulnerability] [RED Engineer, wielding the Frontier Justice, and RED Sniper, wielding the Sniper Rifle, watch bewildered as the Heavy shrugs off rockets] [Cuts back to the Heavy, still advancing] Heavy: "I am bulletproof!" [Heavy keeps moving, mowing down BLU Soldier after BLU Soldier] [Cuts to BLU Soldiers dropping like flies] [Medic and Heavy climb atop a mountain of dead bodies and a flock of doves fly overhead] [Ending title card appears and accompanying music plays] [Cuts to waiting room where the rest of RED are waiting as they do things to pass the time, i.e. the Engineer playing his guitar] Medic (off-screen): "That looks good. Very nice zere. Yes!" Scout (off-screen): "Hey, thanks doc!" [A 'ding' is heard as the "Now Serving" sign changes to number 2] [Scout emerges from the operating room, his chest glowing.] Scout (gallant): "Awhawhaw, man! You would not BELIEVE ... how much this hurts." [Muffled dove coos, and Scout's chest moves] Medic: "Archimedes?"

Gallery

• 

  Poster displaying a likeness of a scene from Meet the Medic

• 

  Page 10 of Meet the Director, showing the Quick-Fix

• 

  The dove model.

• 

  Flying dove model.

• 

  Doves on the old official website

• 

  Hospital hidden image

• 

  Waiting Room hidden image

• 

  Doctor's Office hidden image

• 

  Meet the Medic Teaser Image

• 

  The Trailer logo

• 

  The silhouette of a woman, presumably Miss Pauling

Trivia

• The hospital seen in one of the hidden images resembles the Pacific Medical Center in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, close to Valve headquarters.
• A mysterious woman resembling Miss Pauling can be seen through the window at 0:56 and again at 1:22.
• At 1:03, the entire contents of the fridge can be viewed: three hearts, a Sandvich, three bottles of Red Shed beer, a BLU Spy's Head (alive), a battery for his head, and an ashtray for his cigarettes.
  • Considering the over turned bottle and the half eaten Sandvich at the bottom shelf of the fridge, this fridge may be the very same featured in Meet the Sandvich.
• Throughout the Heavy's procedure, an X-Ray of his body can be seen in the background, which shows a bomb lodged inside. The extracted bomb can be spotted in a bucket behind the Medic.
  • This is the same bomb seen in the "Meet the Medic" title card.
• Despite the Quick-Fix being incapable of providing invulnerability in-game, the Medic is able to use it to make the Heavy invulnerable via Übercharge in Meet the Medic. The fourth day of the Über Update explains that the Quick-Fix's first Übercharge, seen in the video, permanently shorted out the invulnerability feature of the gun and it could never be used again.
• In the waiting room at the end of the video, the Pyro can be seen reading a magazine. The back of the magazine appears to be The Insult That Made a "Jarate Master" Out of Sniper.
• For a short period before the Über Update, doves would sometimes fly out of Scouts after they were killed. This foreshadowed the final gag of the video, in which Archimedes is left inside the Scout's chest after his operation.
• The various hats worn by the army of BLU Soldiers include the Frontline Field Recorder, Stainless Pot, Proof of Purchase, Soldier's Stash, Lumbricus Lid, Grenadier's Softcap, and Armored Authority. A number of Soldiers are seen wielding unlockable weapons as well, including the Direct Hit, Black Box, and the Equalizer.
• The large number of Soldiers charging to their deaths may be a reference to Trailer 2, where a swarm of Soldiers charged in front of an Engineer's Sentry, a Heavy's Minigun, and Rocket Jump all over the map to show off those abilities.
• A broken-down van similar in appearance to the Sniper's camper van can be seen in the tunnel the Medic comes out of when he heals the Demoman and the Scout. Whether the two vehicles are one and the same is unknown.
• One of the Medic's doves shares its name with "Template:W", the Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer.
• The Heavy's Minigun can be spotted in the background of a few operating room shots, resting on its own stretcher.
• The Medic's Overdose can be seen underneath the bucket containing the extracted bomb.
• A heart monitor can be seen working behind the Heavy early in the video. When his heart is destroyed, the line on the monitor goes flat. The next time it is seen, after the Medic retrieves a new heart, it resumes its old display.
  • Strangely, one would not expect the monitor to display anything but a flat line when there is no heart connected to the body.
• When the Demoman is fleeing from the Soldiers in the second battlefield scene, his Grenade Launcher rests on his lap and is his only visible weapon. An explosion sends him flying out of his wheelchair, and the weapon that lands in front of him is, mysteriously, the Stickybomb Launcher instead of the Grenade Launcher he was just holding.
• Despite the Heavy being fully healed after his procedure, during the process it should be noted that his rib never does grow back even when everything else does, confirming the Medic's statement that ribs do not grow back.
• During the scene where the Demoman attempts to escape the BLU Soldiers, a RED Pyro is briefly seen running away behind a rock in the humiliation pose. The Pyro is holding the Flamethrower despite the humiliation animations disabling weapon models when seen in-game.
• In the beginning of the video, the Scout is seen with bandages over his shirt. Later in the video when he is being healed by the Medic, the Scout no longer has those bandages on.

Related merchandise

• MeedTheMedicLithograph.png

  Meet the Medic Lithograph

See also

• Meet the Team
• Meet the Medic (taunt)
• Doves